Sometimes, being a judge, the wisdom of Solomon is needed. This is a case of one culture clashing with another culture.
A 9-year-old boy in Arizona is charged in the gang-rape of an 8-year-old Liberian girl.
He is one of four Liberian boys facing charges in the rape. Police say the boys lured the girl to a storage shed at a west Phoenix apartment complex with the promise of gum and took turns raping her. All the children involved are refugees from the West African nation of Liberia.
Police reported the girl’s father said she brought shame on the family and he didn’t want her back.
Judge Dawn Bergin has the problem to decide if the 9-year-old charged in the rape is competent to stand trial. Two mental-health experts found that he is not.
Abrams, who teaches at Camelview Elementary School in Phoenix, also testified that she was concerned about the boy’s home life, saying he wore the same dirty shirt to school for months, often smelled bad, and was often hungry. She said no one in his family ever showed up to his parent-teacher conferences or signed his homework.
She said the boy often acted out in class and received poor grades even though she believes he was capable of learning his lessons. Whenever the boy was punished, she said he would “shut down,” putting his head down in his arms and refusing to work for the rest of the day.
A 14-year-old is charged as an adult in the case. A 13-year-old is undergoing a court-ordered process intended to make him competent to stand trial. Another 9-year-old has been ruled incompetent but is undergoing classes to teach him about the court system and become competent to stand trial.
Whatever happened to Juvenile Court? Why are these kids being prosecuted in adult court? And what is this about sending a 9-year old kid to school to learn enough to be competent to stand trial? If convicted, do they have to register as sex offenders?
[Source: Huffington Post]
Related posts:
